Reader Catherine and her husband Jonathan loved the original steel kitchen cabinets and tiled walls in their 1950 Cape Cod kitchen, but the room was feeling tired and needed some freshening up. After seeing Pam’s story recommending Azrock flooring as an authentic 1950s style floor choice, Catherine knew it was the right fit for her kitchen. After installing the new floor, painting their original Geneva cabinets, and adding new butcher block counter tops and a stainless steel sink — Catherine and Jonathan’s kitchen is ready for its close up.
Hi! A while back I saw a recommendation on your website for Azrock flooring for authentic 50s kitchen rehabs. You also stated that you’d like photos of completed renovations using this kind of flooring.
Our kitchen renovation, using Azrock Raw Silk (update: Azrock now owned by Tarkett, composite tile here), is complete– and it looks great! We also spray painted our original Geneva cabinets in the kitchen to coordinate, and added a butcher block counter top plus drainboard sink (both from IKEA), to complete that 50s feel.The house was built in 1950 (a Cape Cod, probably what you might call “colonial-revival”), and I believe all the tile in the kitchen and the bathroom is original to the house. The walls are all plaster, so it would be an incredible feat to even try and rip the tile out to recreate it.
The tile in the kitchen is pure white, and the 4×4 backsplash extends throughout the room. The man we hired to spray paint the cabinets said that the cabinets were originally white in color.
There were one or two broken tiles in the kitchen when we moved in. We weren’t able to find a 4×4 tile the exact same shade of white in the store, but when we moved the cabinets out to paint them, we just carefully removed one of the intact tiles behind the where the cabinetry had been and used that as our replacement.
Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions on rehabbing we’ve received from your site. It’s been an incredible resource of ideas for us!
(Also, we live in a St. Louis suburb, so finding missing hardware for our Geneva cabinets online locally here hasn’t been a problem either…)
Thanks,
Catherine
Catherine and Jonathan — you did a great job breathing new life into your kitchen. Everything looks terrific — including vintage Geneva kitchen cabinets, the counter tops, the floors…. and it is very cool to see those original, ceramic tiled walls — we don’t showcase those often enough. Thanks for sharing your results with all of us.
Catherine says
Oh, and to answer your question better, I don’t think we ever considered re-enameling if it is something similar to a bathtub restoration. That sounds like it would make the cabinets very durable. However, it’s been over a year since our cabinets were spray painted, and I can say that the finish is holding up beautifully. I don’t foresee any need to repaint them for many years down the road. My only other advice is DO NOT let the spray painting company paint any part of the handles. A previous owner to our home allowed someone to paint the plastic portion of our Geneva handles to match the cabinets, and the paint wore off in places over the plastic. It was not a good look. We had to find an entire new set of Geneva handles for our cabinets.
Kathleen says
Our cabinets are white. I bet they are from the same timeline. I am getting anxious to get started but have to wait until after the holidays.
One of the contractors was worried that powder coating could be risky if there is some insulation inside. Do you know if there is insulation inside the doors?
We have Ikea closets in our bedroom. I wonder what was there originally. But I do like the baskets and the look.
pam kueber says
Kathleen, you need to get your own properly licensed profession to assess your situation.
Kathleen says
Pam, We really like your countertops. Did they come with the cabinets? Are they laminate? We did find licensed contractors who are really interested in our restoration project. Thanks for the great advice. Kathleen
pam kueber says
My countertops were installed new. Formica + New York Metals stainless steel edging — see the Kitchen / Countertops category for the details.
Catherine says
Thanks, Kathleen! I’ll try to answer your question as best as I can, as it’s been about a year since our renovation, and I can’t recall the difference between re-enameling and powder coating off the top of my head. I do know that I called a couple auto body painting shops prior to our kitchen renovation. They said they had done some metal cabinets in the past, and they looked amazing. However, one of the men I spoke with said they charged by the cabinet and it was so prohibitively expensive he recommended we just go with a spray painting company instead. The spray painting company we found (the first one we called) did an EXCELLENT job. It was a family company that had been around for many years, and the man who came out speculated that his father or grandfather had painted our cabinets decades before. When the paint job was complete, it almost looked like the cabinets had been re-enameled; I think they used a special kind of paint, because this was nothing we could have done ourselves. When you are researching spray painting companies in your area, be sure to ask if the company ever paints metal kitchen cabinets. If they have experience with metal kitchen cabinets, I bet they will do a good job.
Kathleen Donahue says
Catherine, Your renovation is well done! It looks like you have the same Geneva cabinets that we have in our home. Ours are in good shape, but need to be repainted.
We are debating whether to have them sandblasted and powder coated, or re-enameled. A contractor we visited with today said we may want to consider the latter. He said it is similar to bathtub restoration.
Did you consider those options? What made you decide on spray painting?
Thank you for your help!
Kathleen
Pat Wieneke says
Way before people rediscovered St Charles kitchens, I had some frineds who took theirs apart and had them painted by a car paint shop. they looked like new.
Sheri says
How did you paint the cabinets? I would love your advise.
Catherine says
After much research on the best technique/lowest cost for painting our cabinets, we ended up hiring a spray painting company called Mark’s Spray Painting (in St. Louis) to paint them. I take it a good portion of this company’s business is painting older metal cabinets. They came into our house and did everything (taping the walls and vents off, etc). It only took about a morning for them to finish the job, and then we left the cabinets to dry for a few days before using them again. The color we chose for the cabinets was Pearl River 871 by Benjamin Moore. The wall color is Benjamin Moore Nimbus.
Sheri says
I was wondering about the strips that would be there after the doors are removed. That answers all my questions 🙂 I would love to do a retro gray. Right now they are like a green blue. I’m very excited about buying our new house. The kitchen was my only concern.
gsciencechick says
Fabulous! Congrats on such a great job. I really like the floor tiles.
Janine Lee says
Hi,
I read that you had no problem finding handles. I need some for my Geneva Cabinets. Can you tell me how to get in contact with busines you bought yours from.
Thank you,
Janine Lee
Catherine says
We actually got the hardware off Craigslist St. Louis. Someone was getting rid of an entire set of Geneva cabinets for a gut-overhaul of their kitchen. Their contractor had thrown the old cabinets into their backyard, waiting for someone to pick them up. Knowing how hard it was to find the replacement handles alone, we offered $150 for the entire set (this also allowed us to add more cabinetry space to our kitchen– we just painted the additional cabinets the same shade to match). There seems to be a lot of mid-century homes in the St. Louis suburbs. Consequently, there are a lot of random mid-century items available in the thrift stores and on Craigslist in this area. If you are willing to drive to St. Louis, I’d look on St. Louis Craigslist. Good luck!
Janinhe Lee says
Thanks for the reply.
Denise says
I love it. Agree with the 1940’s sanitary tile observation. Full house tour, please.
Karin Jeffrey says
Wow, your kitchen is amazing tasteful and well planned. Even the non-retro people couldn’t find fault with your design choices. How lucky you were to have the original steel cabinets AND hardware to add to them. We don’t find them as often in Canada. I’ve always felt that Ikea’s products blend well with MCM and retro style.
Lisa Compo says
I’m with everyone else on this…looks lovely. It’s like a breath of fresh air in there. I’m a clutter bug, too…so can you tell us all exactly what happens to your mail, pens, catalogs, receipts? Where do you hide all those things you need to keep? 😉 I love the clean look and blend of old and new…thank goodness for IKEA. We found the perfect little shelf there last week. My Mom would “make” me put a valance at the window, but other than that…it’s just gorgeous. Nice job–be proud and enjoy. Looks fabulous, thanks for sharing I always enjoy the stories on here.
Catherine says
Thanks! Mail/catalogs/receipts go straight to the basement office. Otherwise they get carried away somewhere by the kids and we’ll never find them!! 🙂
Lisa Compo says
Well, I am glad to know you have a pile going somewhere…:) I bought a breadbox to hide some of that junk in and now the “gotta keep it awhile” pile is in front of that, too. hee hee hee Everyone has a little clutter somewhere I guess. Thanks for confessing LOL.